Has talent become the battlefield for companies?
If something is turning subtly (or not so subtly) in our way of understanding the economy, talent is its fulcrum. Companies are realizing this and are looking almost pleadingly at their Human Resources departments.. Success no longer depends on having the best infrastructure or the best access to raw materials, but on having the best minds in tune with a specific purpose..
To try to understand how this trend is unfolding today and where it is heading, EL MUNDO organized the “Talent” meeting last Friday.. Milestones that are revolutionizing HR in companies”, sponsored by AstraZeneca, Cobee and Repsol.
After the presentation of the event by Francisco Pascual, deputy to the Directorate and responsible for the Economic Information of El Mundo, Jordi Serrano, Partner of the Future for Work Institute, opened the fire with the dissertation “AI, a great factor of change in the management of people”.
Serrano recalled the article “It's time to blow up HR and build something new”, published by the Harvard Business Review in 2015, “when HR was the department of no and largely missed the train of digital transformation. Now you don't want to miss this artificial intelligence revolution.”. To do this, he said, “it should be included in the planning, identifying where its application would increase productivity in our company.”.
Raquel Larena, HR Regional Director for Southern Europe, the United Kingdom and Latam at Randstad, participated in the debate “Intensification of the war for talent”; Vanesa Berrido, Head of Talent at Danone; Marta Pérez-Leirós, Chief People & Sustainable Business Officer of NH Hotel Group; Amelia Rodriguez, Head of People & Culture for Spain and Portugal at Amadeus, and Emilio Masa, Senior Enterprise Relationship Manager at Cobee.
Technological changes, they commented, have fostered a new sensitivity, with cases as illustrative as the Great Resignation, whose paradigm Masa summarized when asking “what can large organizations do when salary is no longer everything?”. His response: “Now everything is about well-being” and management “largely involves listening to our collaborators and personalizing the value proposition.”. Companies must internalize this or they will be left behind.”. To which Larena added the need for “coherence, with effective actions that give credibility”; The work experience must be “healthy and successful” because, among other things, “workers are influencers of the company's brand”.
Regarding the gap between the skills in demand and the labor supply, Rodríguez pointed out that companies must address employee training “without paternalism, putting training sources at their disposal so that they can lead their own development, letting them learn how to train themselves.”. In that same sense, Pérez-Leirós advocated for “authentic flexibility, in which employees have room to configure a way of working that fits their reality.”. Perspective that Berrido connected with a “change that consists of humanizing our value proposition: people want to feel who they really are at work and grow, but not only professionally, but also in their personal project.”
The second round table focused on a specific aspect of this new sensitivity. Titled “Mental health and balance: emotional well-being of workers in a more productive, positive and enriching work environment”, Antonio Pajuelo, director of Talent and Employee Experience at Mahou-San Miguel, participated; Carla Ruiz, director of Human Resources at AstraZeneca, and Eva Rodríguez, deputy director of Prevention and Psychological Assistance at Mapfre.
Ruiz stressed the importance of the company's total involvement with mental health: “At AstraZeneca it not only depends on HR, but on each of us,” as illustrated by the “more than 100 volunteers in initiatives related to this matter” and the campaigns such as “Derribando Muros”, essential to end taboos and “dare to talk about these issues”. Rodríguez recognized that the “pandemic intensified the tendency to want to live longer and better; we ask companies to help us with that purpose, but also in self-care, in the ability to self-manage one's own mental health, the ability to be adjusted.”. And regarding harassment and discrimination, Pajuelo agreed with the blunt attitude of his fellow members: “Zero tolerance. When you have to sanction, sanction, and when you have to fire, fire. “You have to be transparent and authentic to have credibility.”
The last conversation revolved around the topic “Talent, engine of the ecological transition”. Carlos Casas, global director of Talent and Culture at BBVA, participated; Ana Benita, director of Organization, Talent and Health at Acciona Energía; Javier Molero. Director of Projects and Agenda 2030 of the UN Global Compact Spain, and Enrique Fernández Puertas, Director of Talent, Culture and Transformation of Repsol.
The latter emphasized “the sense of urgency” of the debate due to “the need to have new skills, because the energy of the future is manufactured in a different way, but without leaving anyone behind” and being “totally transparent” in management.. Casas, for his part, noted that he notices “the environmental sensitivity that is increasingly present not only in the talent that comes to us, but in society as a whole” and that “sustainability is very present” in the bank's business plans, such as can be seen, “for example, in the evaluation and incentive objectives of our employees”.
Molero expanded on the role of ESG criteria in attracting talent: “That is why it is very important that companies define a solid and credible sustainability strategy. “In contrast to somewhat abstract concepts, we recommend tangible and quantifiable criteria, such as setting the carbon emission in a specific environment or the percentage of equality between men and women in management positions.”. Benito, finally, stressed the need to connect these criteria to incentives, and highlighted that, within his company's variable remuneration system, “12.5% is connected to certain sustainability values.”.